What’s the worst roads? If you ask anyone who lives in Chicago, they will tell you Chicago streets are the worst because of the huge potholes that develop each Winter. The Chicago Department of Transportation patches potholes on 3,800 miles of city streets with December through April being the peak period. In 2016 the American Automobile Association reported that pothole damage cost U.S. drivers $15 billion in vehicle repairs over the last five years, or approximately $3 billion each year.

If you get away from the city, you will soon come upon unpaved country roads. In fact, in 2008 the U.S. had 1.3 million miles of unpaved roads. Some of these are dirt roads which wind up and down hills and around bends in the road. Others are gravel roads made from small stones or rocks from the local gravel pit. The dirt roads become mud with the Spring rains and are near impassable. The gravel roads send up clouds of dust when vehicles use them. So, what’s worst?

Maybe even a paved highway can be less than ideal. For a commuter, the traffic on the highways can make the trip a hell on earth. For a trucker, an icy freeway can cause his rig to jackknife. For the traveler in Illinois, the monotony of mile after mile of fields of corn or beans or wheat makes him wish for the good ole days of two lane roads with small towns every six or seven miles. Ask anyone who has driven across the deserts of the American Southwest to describe that experience to you.

Oh, you think that’s not so bad. How about driving on a snow or an ice road to the Northern oilfields and diamond mines in Canada and Alaska? The ice road truckers drive on frozen lakes and rivers to take supplies to these remote operations. The season is short, and conditions are harsh.

If you like to be alone, here is a road is for you. Once called the North Slope Haul Road, the Dalton Highway in Alaska is a 414 mile road which starts just north of Fairbanks and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. It was built in 1974 as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. There are only three towns along the 414 mile stretch. Coldfoot has a population of ten. Wiseman has a population of twenty-two. Deadhorse has twenty-five permanent residents. However, Deadhorse has 3,500 to 5,000 seasonal residents, depending on oil production.

To see a video about the ten most dangerous roads in the world, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdoAFK3FD1Y.

—By Karen Centowski